


little promises

by litriu



Category: One Piece
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Light Angst, One Shot, Thriller Bark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-19 19:51:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17008116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litriu/pseuds/litriu
Summary: We all make promises, and sometimes we have to break them.[repost/rewrite from my tumblr]Can be read as romantic or platonic between any characters, whatever suits your fancy. Mostly focused on luffy/zoro





	little promises

Zoro’s battle against Mihawk was crushing.

 

He had his entire life to let his pride recover, and to win back his honor.  
The wounds he suffered would heal and scar over with new, hardened flesh hastily made in the body’s rush to save itself.  
By now he couldn’t even remember the pain. The human mind tends to do that in times of great suffering, you remember that it hurt but you can’t remember the degree to which you felt it. He knows it hurt in a way that made him wonder if he was dying, and he’d later get wounds that hurt far more and proved he could easily survive far worse. But he doesn’t really remember the pain itself.

The thing he remembers was the noise Luffy made.

He’d heard Luffy’s joyful shrieking laughter, snores that could rattle the _Merry_ ’s windows, snarls and growls like he was a rabid animal, roars filled with passion and rage that let you know this was a man who would rip your throat out with his teeth. Nothing’s ever sounded like this.  
He knew it was his name, distantly, but for a moment he couldn’t recognize it from his Captain’s mouth. The way it ripped from Luffy’s throat and rattled like it was already shattered to pieces by the time it reached his mouth left it alien and foreign and frightening.  
He didn’t know a single word, _his name_ , could sound like that.

He made a promise. He could barely take in enough air to speak, but through tears and gritted teeth as his body shook and warm blood soaked into his clothes.  
Loud, with the last of his breath, he promised, for his Captain, for the Pirate King, for Luffy.

 

Usopp punched him in the arm later, “Don’t scare us like that again!” he’d said, looking absolutely livid.  
His crewmate made his feelings crystal clear with words, he spent most of the day heavily chiding Zoro while making sure he didn’t hurt himself further. He told him how worried he was, how scared Luffy had been.

“Okay, I get it,” Zoro snapped at him. Usopp did not shrink, only glared back at him.  
“You don’t get it,” he insisted, voice gentle but unyielding. “We’re not upset because we’re put out that you’re human! We’re upset because we thought you were dead!” Usopp rubbed his face over his hands, then threaded his fingers through his hair. He looked exhausted, as if he’d aged ten years in a couple hours.  
“I thought you were dead and Luffy was going to kill Mihawk or die trying! And then where would I be left, huh?”  
“Somewhere not lecturing me?” Usopp punched his arm again and Zoro winced.  
The other gave him another sharp glare, cold and severe before his expression fell back into something softer. “I mean it, you dumbass. Take better care of yourself.”

Usopp’s concern was honest and open. It showed in Usopp lecturing him, calling him a dumbass, taking the time to dress his wounds despite chastising him.

Luffy didn’t do words.

As night washed over the Merry and Zoro tried to find sleep, just as he was dozing, another weight shifted carefully into his hammock and a warmth bled into his side.  
His eyes opened to the sight of a familiar mop of black hair resting on his shoulder. One of Luffy’s arms draped unusually gently over his middle, and one of his captain’s legs twisted together with his.  
Usually, if his Captain found his way into his bed he’d have a warm weight awkwardly sprawled over his chest and a tangle of limbs twisted around him, tight in a way that was edging on painful.  
But Luffy was careful this time. He’d never seen Luffy careful with anything except maybe his hat, and now here he was. Being treated like something fragile if Luffy even grasped the concept of something being breakable.  
Luffy’s face pressed into the crook of his neck, and even thought Zoro couldn’t see his expression he knew that it was pinched. Zoro’s hand found it’s way to Luffy’s arm where it rested over him, and his fingers absently stroked over the other’s skin.  
His Captain’s fingers twisted into his shirt and gripped tightly enough that his knuckles turned white.  
It was so strangely silent, especially given that it was Luffy they were talking about, but neither of them spoke. The only sound that passed between them was warm breath against Zoro’s shoulder, slowly growing calmer and more steady as Luffy dozed.

He made another promise, a silent one, only for himself. He was never going to hear that sound again.

 

* * *

 

  
Every battle brought those promises to mind, but today the memories seemed especially loud as he stared down the embodiment of his captain’s suffering.

As he stood in the rubble of the fight, he thought of the promise he made to Luffy that day.

He thought of Usopp telling him to take care of himself when Kuma told him the pain would surely kill him.

While he shook and struggled to stand from a fraction of the suffering his Captain had been bearing he thought of Luffy’s warmth against his side and the gentleness he didn’t know Luffy was capable of.

His gaze drifted to Luffy, his Captain, where he lay collapsed from the strain of what Zoro was about to take and he thought of Luffy’s strength.

He looked back to Kuma, back to the suffering that was waiting for him. He thought of the noise Luffy made.

 

He didn’t want to think about the sound Luffy might make if he woke up to Zoro dead beside him.

 

“Just let me… go to another spot…”

 

_Somewhere where Luffy won’t find me._

**Author's Note:**

> wassup I cried while writing this
> 
> [tumblr](https://litriu.tumblr.com) | [twitter](https://twitter.com/litriu) | [op sideblog](https://loofiedee.tumblr.com/)


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